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In 2018, Guillaume Helleu and Anthony Masure published an article in Cairn entitled «Total Record. Les protocoles blockchain face au post-capitalisme.»¹⁾Guillaume Helleu and Anthony Masure «Total Record: Les protocoles blockchain face au post-capitalisme,» in Multitudes 71 (2018/2), 70-79.  The article, cited in Mark Alizart‘s Cryptocommunisme: Soviets + Bitcoin (official translation in progress, as per Alizart, with an unofficial one being worked on by me), has yet to be translated.²⁾Mark Alizart, Cryptocommunisme: Soviets + Bitcoin (Paris: PUF, 2019). Given the interesting subject matter and my current forays into French, I’ve decided to translate the article myself. It ought to be noted, however, that this is an unofficial translation with not only no support or guidance from the authors, but no direct institutional affiliation. Given that, it is up to the reader to take what they want from the article and, as with everything else, take my words with a grain of salt.

While I stuck to the text as literally as possible in some places, I was forced to make small changes as translation is never 1:1. In places of ambiguity or where I deemed it necessary, I have included the appropriate French original in hard brackets. Additionally, everything else in hard brackets not within a quotation is extra commentary by me. Finally, the only ‘official’ translation of any part of this article that seems to exist is the abstract on Cairn‘s website. To allow the reader to get a feel for my translation vs. Cairn‘s vs. the original French, I have reproduced all three below before the full text of the paper. I urge any reader not well versed in French to note the differences between Cairn‘s translation and my own as that will help you get a feel for my style. And of course, as translation is a tricky and dangerous game to play, I welcome any and all feedback. Without further ado, here is the abstract.

Original:

Le protocole Bitcoin (2009) s’inscrit dans le prolongement des utopies crypto-anarchistes visant à développer une monnaie numérique sécurisée et distribuée sur le réseau Internet pour échapper à la centralisation du pouvoir par les banques et les gouvernements. Récupérées en grande partie par la finance spéculative, ces technologies à chaînes de blocs (blockchain) se sont progressivement développées et dépassent désormais largement le champ monétaire (applications distribuées, contrats intelligents, jetons de valeurs, etc.). Malgré la persistance de certains freins sociaux et techniques, les protocoles blockchain pourraient-ils prendre de vitesse la logique destructrice du capitalisme financier ?

Cairn‘s Translation:

Bitcoin (2009) is an extension of crypto-anarchist utopias aimed at developing a secure and distributed digital currency on the Internet network. It thus aims to escape the centralization of power by banks and governments. Caught up by speculative finance, blockchain technologies now extend beyond the financial field (decentralized applications, smart-contracts, tokens, etc.). Despite some remaining social and technical barriers, could blockchain protocols encourage the emergence of post-capitalist futures?

My Translation:

The Bitcoin Protocol (2009) marked an extension of the utopias envisioned by the Crypto-Anarchists with the development of a secure and distributed online digital currency designed to escape the centralization of power by banks and governments. Hijacked [récupérée] in large part from speculative finance, these technologies, ‘chains of blocks’ (the blockchain), were progressive developments that widely surpassed applications in the traditional monetary field (distributed applications, smart contracts, tokens of value, etc.). Despite the persistence of certain social and technical breaking points, can the blockchain protocol work with, and even speed up, the destructive logic of contemporary finance capitalism?

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